The events of the previous day had completely worn the kids out, and they slept in, waking up at 6:00 a.m.
The Cruise Line bus wasn't scheduled to pick us up until about 11:45 a.m., so we had time to kill. Two days before we had left for the vacation, my MIL had announced to the kids that we would be eating at Whispering Canyon Cafe (known in our house as the "We Need Ketchup" place). This would have been fine if she had...oh, I don't know...mentioned the idea to us so we could have made reservations? After a panicked few minutes, my wife and I had managed to scramble up a breakfast reservation for this particular morning.
We were seated around 8:00. We got a server whose name started with a W (Wendy? Wanda? I forget), who happened to be the most enthusiastic and in-character server working that morning. This pleased us and and the kids...not so much the in-laws. Which is strange, because FIL loves to tell us about the time he ate in a place in Arizona where they cut off his tie.
Anyway, the kids got showered with napkins and straws. I tried to convince them to get ketchup for their pancakes, but to no avail. We did witness other tables falling prey to the gag, though. My favorite was when W caught a woman talking on her cell phone, slammed her tray on the table and yelled, "QUIET EVERYBODY!! SHE'S ON THE PHONE!!!"
We had a nice meal (quality pancakes) and left a good tip to try and make up for the grumpy in-laws. With more time to kill, Julie took Sarah to get a hair wrap in preparation for the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, the boys and I explored more nooks and crannies in the WL, and then went into the Villas just to be nosy and check out the train room.
At long last, 11:45 rolled around and we boarded the bus for Port Canaveral.
The ride was a little over an hour, fairly painless overall. The excitement ratcheted up several notches when we crested a bridge and caught our first glimpse of the Disney Wonder. The bus slowly circled the port terminal, giving us plenty of time to look over the ship.
Security and check-in were fairly painless. I had gotten a passport for the first time in my life and was excited to be able to use it. Does this make me a nerd? Don't answer that.
In any case, we were thrilled to see that the Christmas decorations were out!
By about 1:30, we'd gotten our Key To The World cards and the kids had their bracelets/pager for the Oceaneers Club. We strolled down the gangway, gave our name to the hostess waiting aboard, and were introduced into the glorious Disney Wonder lobby:
A special greeter was present as well:
We took the elevators to deck 7, where we had Cat. 8 connecting rooms 7504 and 7506 near the front of the ship on the right (starboard) side. The kids were excited about the bed that pulled down from the ceiling.
We explored deck 9 a bit, checking out the pools and eating a light, late lunch at the buffet. The outside deck at the buffet would be a favorite spot to take in a meal, especially breakfast.
We did the safety drill and tried to check out the Adventures Away party, but it was a little crowded and hard to see anything. I had expected a big countdown and a blast of the ship's horn to announce our departure, but instead we just started moving and the horn sounded at a random moment.
This was a little anti-climactic.
We went back to our room to get changed for dinner. The kids looked out the window as we left the U.S. and went into international waters, their first time ever leaving the country. This is one of our favorite photos:
It was eerie to see the ship moving and yet be so silent. Up to this point, we had felt no motion whatsoever. But there was a little problem waiting for us out in the open ocean: a little gal named Hurricane Ida, somewhere out there churning the waters.
I have always been prone to seasickness. Julie and I had taken a nightmare of a trip to New England several years ago (I think it was called National Lampoon's New England Vacation) which had included a 3.5-hour whale watching expedition that almost made us swear off boats forever. There are 2 stages of seasickness: in the first, you are afraid you will die. In the second, you are afraid you won't.
I had expressed this fear to my friends prior to leaving, and without fail, they all said the same thing: "Oh, you won't even feel it. Not on a ship that size."
Your Honor, I present Exhibits A and B:
I don't care who you are. You're feeling that. By the way, is there really such a thing as a "moderate gale"? I always thought it was either a gale, or it wasn't. By the time you're trying to differentiate between a gale and a moderate gale, I think common sense takes over--don't let small kids wander outside.
The rest of this report will be sponsored by Bonine. Thanks to the DIS, we had read that this was the popular choice for staving off seasickness, and had started taking it the day before the cruise. It worked beautifully, and we never once felt sick. It was a little hard to walk in a straight line, however.
Dinner was at Animator's Palate. I know some people have reported being underwhelmed by the "show" here, but I thought it was pretty cool. The music and slow addition of colors leading up to the walls "disappearing" was very entertaining. We mostly took video here, so I don't really have any pictures to show off, unfortunately.
I do have this one of Dave looking mildy constipated, though:
Our servers were Renata from Hungary and Joacir from Brazil, who were wonderful all week. Disney knows customer service, but you didn't need me to tell you that.
Unfortunately, MIL did not take Bonine. She was sick and had her head down on the table for most of the meal. We offered to walk her back to her room, but she refused.
I made a run to guest services to get some bonine pills for her, but it seemed to be too little, too late.
FOODIES: my selection for an appetizer was the Taleggio Cheese Flatbread, and my main course was the Lemon-Thyme Marinated Chicken Breast, served on top of Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Root Vegetables, and Grain Mustard Jus. Double Fudge Chocolate cake for dessert.
NON-GOURMET ENGLISH TRANSLATION: Some kind of pizza thing with potatoes and bacon on it that wasn't half bad, chicken and potatoes with some frou-frou stuff I ignored, and chocolate cake. On the whole, everything tasted great. My wife got a beef dish, however, that I wish I had ordered myself.
The kids were exhausted once again, so we put them down to bed and then left the door cracked so the in-laws could keep an eye on them while we went to the Golden Mickeys. This show was terrific, all the more impressive when you consider that the stage was moving (thanks to Ida). Beautifully performed by an impressive cast. Julie and I went to bed satisfied, and hoping the rocking and rolling ship would gently lull us to sleep. It worked.
In our next installment: To get off or not get off in Nassau: that is the question. Plus, will we ever be able to stand still on this trip?
Great TR...can't wait for your thoughts on the cruise!! We're taking our first one in May, hope we like it!!!
Did you manage to take any pictures of the lights at Epcot from the monorail? 
